• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 21:17
CEST 03:17
KST 10:17
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End9Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2915Serral wins Maestros of the Game 244ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3
Community News
Official StarCraft website teases new content ahead of BlizzCon?82Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20)9Weekly Cups (August 24-30): Patches' balance mod takes over3New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery!40Weekly Cups (August 17-23): Zerg dominate the week6
StarCraft 2
General
Nexon wins bid to develop StarCraft IP content, distribute Overwatch mobile game SC4ALL: II Winner Will Earn a Spot at HSC 30! Weekly Cups (August 24-30): Patches' balance mod takes over Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) September World Ranking: herO leads, Serral climbs
Tourneys
2026 GSTL Announcement Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) IntoTheTV X SOOP SC2 League : Weekly & Monthly SC2 INu's Battles#20 [BO.9]
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
Mutation # 541 Binary Choice The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 540 Dodge This Mutation # 539 Thunder Dome
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Official StarCraft website teases new content ahead of BlizzCon? ASL22 General Discussion Gypsy to Korea [Personal Project Share] Terran Defense v0.60
Tourneys
Brood War in Budapest ! WORTEX 2026 BW Finals KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues BSL LAN Party - Kraków 29-30 August - OPEN SIGNUPS
Strategy
Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation Replay Review Process - What do you do? Game Theory for Starcraft Fighting Spirit mining rates
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Diablo IV EVE Corporation [Maplestory Hardcore] Let's Play~!! General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Power Rank TL Mafia Community Thread NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Artificial Intelligence Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread UK Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The Creator Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Northern Ireland Global Starcraft
Blogs
Dreaming of BW patches (mod…
c3rberUs
Regacy Esports: The Bh…
regacyesports
Violent Games and Crime Rate…
TrAiDoS
LOCKPICKING NOOB
LUCKY_NOOB
Cathedral Of CS And NY pizza a…
FuDDx
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 10246 users

[I] Hiding Defilers

Forum Index > Brood War Strategy
Post a Reply
1 2 Next All
SiegeTanksandBlueGoo
Profile Blog Joined December 2007
China685 Posts
March 19 2009 23:05 GMT
#1
I was thinking about ways to not get your defiler irradiated so easily in zvt.

I think a defiler's the key way (obviously, right?) to defend a base. The problem with me defending bases in zvt is that the terran always moves his vessels forward to irradiate right before he attacks.

What if zergs researched burrow and burrowed lings with the defilers? You need lings for consume anyways, and it's only 100 gas. Besides, the size of the lings is the same as the defiler and no terran is really going to move his vessel in and check each burrowed "spot" one by one to find the defiler.

Of course this is all pure theorycrafting so if any good players could give some feedback, this would be great (Idra? I know you're out there!)
What does the scouter say about his macro level? It's Over 9000 minerals!
StRyKeR
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
United States1739 Posts
March 19 2009 23:07 GMT
#2
Burrow + put overlord above is pretty good. They can't see it and even if they it's hard for them to target.

Research overlord speed + drop is the best way to hide defilers, but it's pretty darn expensive. But you can pop your defiler in and out and dodge irradiates. You have to change ship but losing an ovie to irradiate is cheaper than losing a defiler.

Realistically, I usually research burrow (need it anyway in case of vessel eraser gayness) and put shit on top of defiler.
Ars longa, vita brevis, principia aeturna.
NSANE.hydra
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
United States644 Posts
March 19 2009 23:09 GMT
#3
Placing a ling directly on top of the defiler might be an easier way to hide it. If you just burrow around it, there's still a chance the T will click it. He'll probably also find it a little suspicious that you have burrowed units in your own base.
"fuck mech...I could 4pool and as long as he's simply PLANNING on going mech, I'll lose"
Equaoh
Profile Joined October 2008
Canada427 Posts
March 19 2009 23:16 GMT
#4
If you've got nydus canals in the area you can move your defiler backwards and forwards through them.
Clasic
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Bosnia-Herzegovina1437 Posts
March 19 2009 23:23 GMT
#5
Yea when I play zerg ( once every month ) I would mainly move them through my nydus cannals if your talking about late game.
No no no no its not mine!
Archaic
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
United States4024 Posts
March 19 2009 23:33 GMT
#6
About the overlord drop + speed, I suppose this works, but don't put more than one defiler in an overlord. If I remember correctly, if you pick up an irradiated unit, every other organic unit inside the overlord will be hurt by splash as well.
Oppa
Profile Joined March 2009
United States7 Posts
March 19 2009 23:54 GMT
#7
Well you should be utilizing nyduses so it'd be a good idea to use them to avoid irradiates as well, just move the defilers through the nydus canal. Although those tricks are also nice, sometimes you really may not have the time to set up a cute ovie over a burrowed defiler etc. Simply make more than one at a time and instead of trying so hard to avoid getting the defiler irradiated when the vessels actually come, practice scourging his vessels beforehand. You should be constantly making scourge as well especially if you see that his vessels are growing in number, so chances are they will be there when he comes to irradiate everything,
Oppa!!
SteveNick
Profile Joined November 2008
United States304 Posts
March 20 2009 11:42 GMT
#8
I offrace Zerg quite a bit, and fortunately, Protoss is my main, so I do not have these cowardly instincts to "hide" things. I just run my units straight forward into the line of fire, dark swarms blazing underneath tank fire. It's like d-day.

Seriously, though, you could try one of these cute moves to hide them, but the real solution is to probably just control the game by having more defilers than you need(so you can afford to lose some) with scourge near them to kill the vessels if they come near. If he has to suicide a vessel, or better yet, lose the vessel before getting off the irradiate, then you're good to go. It probably couldn't hurt to use burrow/hide the defiler along with keep scourge near also, though.
It's all fun and games until somebody gets 4gated.
IdrA
Profile Blog Joined July 2004
United States11541 Posts
March 20 2009 11:58 GMT
#9
youd need a system to make sure you could select the defiler quickly, otherwise if they catch you off guard all your shit will be dead before you unburrow and swarm. using a hotkey for a defiler at every base wouldnt be all that practical, and itd be easy to forget which burrowed spot is the defiler and depending on unburrowing everything is dangerous because of the thing where attacked units auto unburrow and mess with the commands.
http://www.splitreason.com/product/1152 release the gracken tshirt now available
Wurzelbrumpft
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
Germany471 Posts
March 20 2009 12:00 GMT
#10
On March 20 2009 20:42 SteveNick wrote:


Seriously, though, you could try one of these cute moves to hide them, but the real solution is to probably just control the game by having more defilers than you need(so you can afford to lose some) with scourge near them to kill the vessels if they come near. If he has to suicide a vessel, or better yet, lose the vessel before getting off the irradiate, then you're good to go. It probably couldn't hurt to use burrow/hide the defiler along with keep scourge near also, though.


This. Researching burrow, burrow defiler and move an overlord/ling above it is totally unrealistic. It takes way to much time and concentration. also terrans vessels shouldnt be able to just fly around on their own, you have to force him to bring his army with, and if theres a point in the game where your defilers might be eradiated, you shouldnt burrow, but cast dark swarm or plague, since his army will be nearby.
beam me up scotty, this planet suxX
Cloud
Profile Blog Joined November 2004
Sexico5880 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-03-20 12:09:31
March 20 2009 12:09 GMT
#11
Or just place your scourges in front..?

There are also nydus canals you know.
BlueLaguna on West, msg for game.
niin
Profile Joined July 2008
61 Posts
March 20 2009 14:02 GMT
#12
scourge the vessels

end of story
StRyKeR
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
United States1739 Posts
March 20 2009 14:16 GMT
#13
On March 20 2009 20:58 IdrA wrote:
youd need a system to make sure you could select the defiler quickly, otherwise if they catch you off guard all your shit will be dead before you unburrow and swarm. using a hotkey for a defiler at every base wouldnt be all that practical, and itd be easy to forget which burrowed spot is the defiler and depending on unburrowing everything is dangerous because of the thing where attacked units auto unburrow and mess with the commands.


It's not that bad, you click all burrowed units and isolate the defiler icon. If you have fast enough reflexes, you can screen back to a tank + mnm + vessel push, unburrow, and dark swarm. You just need to pull off one, and if your defiler's kind of in the back, it's not gonna die before you do that.
Ars longa, vita brevis, principia aeturna.
IdrA
Profile Blog Joined July 2004
United States11541 Posts
March 20 2009 14:22 GMT
#14
its not that bad sure, but when you're sitting behind a couple of lurkers and he charges you with 3 groups of mm 1 second pulling up the defiler can cost you the game.
http://www.splitreason.com/product/1152 release the gracken tshirt now available
StRyKeR
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
United States1739 Posts
March 20 2009 14:54 GMT
#15
On March 20 2009 23:22 IdrA wrote:
its not that bad sure, but when you're sitting behind a couple of lurkers and he charges you with 3 groups of mm 1 second pulling up the defiler can cost you the game.


yea. it's useful as defense or offense though, not as chilling out midmap
Ars longa, vita brevis, principia aeturna.
R3condite
Profile Joined August 2008
Korea (South)1541 Posts
March 20 2009 18:55 GMT
#16
On March 20 2009 23:54 StRyKeR wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 20 2009 23:22 IdrA wrote:
its not that bad sure, but when you're sitting behind a couple of lurkers and he charges you with 3 groups of mm 1 second pulling up the defiler can cost you the game.


yea. it's useful as defense or offense though, not as chilling out midmap

i think he meant 3 lurker in ur base...
ggyo...
nosnibor
Profile Joined February 2009
United States7 Posts
March 20 2009 19:44 GMT
#17
On March 20 2009 23:02 niin wrote:
scourge the vessels

end of story


he said it.
gul
Profile Joined March 2009
United States13 Posts
March 20 2009 21:15 GMT
#18
you can also "stack burrow" a unit on top of the defiler making it impossible to click on. Like stack burrowing lurkers so only 1 can be irradiated at a time.

I like this trick, but the drawbacks I see are:
1.) makes your army immobile (but if you say use it for defense, that might work).
2.) you might lose track of your own defiler making you have to find it delay your swarm cast

Other than that, I can see that some burrowed lurkers, lings, defilers with some hydras/scourges on top can help stop terran's vessel movement from just swooping in, irradiating and swooping out.

I see too often that even with scourge nearby, the vessels have such a large vision and irradiate casting range, it can usually cast and dodge back into the mnm to draw the scourge into the marine fire.

I guess that's why I'm starting to see pros use some hydra/lurker/ling/swarm vs mnm now. Example is By.Hero vs Hwasin in OSL Ro8 using only hydra/lurker/swarm. and also July used some hydra/lurker/ling/swarm in All Race fight... i think also vs hwasin.

CharlieMurphy
Profile Blog Joined March 2006
United States22895 Posts
March 20 2009 21:25 GMT
#19
Burrowing 100 lings is going to hurt you more than losing a defiler or two. T will just walk into your lings and attack them and fuck their AI so they just suicide and your hotkeys will be all fucked up and not work if you try to mass unburrow a mixed group.
..and then I would, ya know, check em'. (Aka SpoR)
jhNz
Profile Blog Joined September 2006
Germany2762 Posts
March 20 2009 21:38 GMT
#20
i don't know how viable it is but the easiest way is to hide it in an overlord over your base i guess. sure you can still lose your overlord but so you can burrowed units.
http://twitter.com/jhNz
1 2 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 8h 43m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
SpeCial 177
RuFF_SC2 123
StarCraft: Brood War
Shuttle 823
Hyuk 233
White-Ra 167
sSak 82
910 65
Yoon 14
Dota 2
NeuroSwarm152
League of Legends
Doublelift5464
Counter-Strike
summit1g10496
minikerr262
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor167
Other Games
JimRising 708
PiGStarcraft579
ViBE72
Mew2King56
XaKoH 0
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick1942
BasetradeTV62
[ Show 9 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• musti20045 22
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Upcoming Events
Sparkling Tuna Cup
8h 43m
OSC
10h 43m
Shopify Rebellion Sundays
13h 43m
Mixu vs TBD
Spirit vs TBD
Clem vs TBD
Patches Events
14h 43m
OSC
22h 43m
Afreeca Starleague
1d 8h
Soma vs Shuttle
BeSt vs Rush
WardiTV Weekly
1d 9h
Monday Night Weeklies
1d 14h
Afreeca Starleague
2 days
Leta vs ggaemo
Jaedong vs Queen
GSL
2 days
[ Show More ]
PiGosaur Cup
2 days
Kung Fu Cup
3 days
Replay Cast
3 days
The PondCast
4 days
KCM Race Survival
4 days
Escore
5 days
IntoTheTV X SOOP
5 days
CranKy Ducklings
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-09-02
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
Light Tournament 2026

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
K-JUNGMAN
ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Acropolis #5
Acropolis #5 - TRS
RSL Revival: Season 6
Calamity Invitational
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
Esports World Cup 2026: LCQ
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S3: King of Kings
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Acropolis #5 - GSA
Acropolis #5 - GSB
Acropolis #5 - GSC
SC4ALL II: Brood War
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.